ii I thank the Roman Catholic Church for encouraging academic theological research in general and Pope Francis for revitalizing the debate on this particular issue. I hope to have conducted my study in the spirit of his remarks to Rome’s Lutheran congregation in 2015, as discussed in Chapter 1. I am thankful to Cardinal Walter Kasper, with whom I feel privileged to have discussed my research. Closer to home, I want to express my sincere gratitude to Msgr. De Korte, bishop of Den Bosch, and Geert van Dartel, president of the National Council of Churches in The Netherlands, for their friendship and their openness to critically discuss the matter at hand among many other topics. I owe so many people thanks for their interest and support: friends and family, colleagues, peers, and students at Tilburg University, our Graduate School (especially Jack de Mooij and Agnes Berns), fellow PhD candidates and lecturers at research school NOSTER for their feedback and examples, its staff – now my colleagues – and the many inspiring participants in academic conferences and ecumenical meetings. A special thanks to dr. Giulia Casadei, dr. Anton ten Klooster, and dr. Sam Goyvaerts, with whom I have co-authored texts in the past years. Additional thanks to the latter for accompanying me on this special day as paranymph, together with my good friend Willem van Enk. I should not forget those whom I join in celebrating the Eucharist on a regular basis in my home parish. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my wife and dear friend Geertrude, who gave me the space to do this. Not only has our life together matured over the years, providing a solid basis for my scholarly work (of the utmost importance itself, especially during the pandemic), but she has also embarked with me on an even greater adventure as we welcomed our most precious children Sofie and Hugo. They are a source of happiness and have assured some very welcome distraction after long days of reading, transcribing, and writing. Spending countless hours tending to them and playing with them has surely enriched me as a person, as a theologian, and as an academic. Finally, I owe heartfelt thanks to the communities that I have studied. Taizé and Bose have both welcomed me with appreciated gestures of hospitality. They – and the respondents in particular – have made themselves vulnerable by participating in my study. I sincerely hope that this study will contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of Eucharistic hospitality and that it inspires church leaders to once again entertain its ecumenical potential. I hope that it does justice to the lives, experiences, and ecumenical mission of the communities and their members. May their prayers – including their Eucharistic prayers – serve the unity of the church. Holy Thursday (14 April 2022), grateful for the institution of the Eucharist. Fokke Wouda
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